The new PS4 and PS5 port of Call of Duty: Black Ops is being called “unplayable” by fans after exploits have consumed multiplayer lobbies.
Last week, Activision released PS4 and PS5 ports of the first two Black Ops games, much to the joy of fans. Although they’re a bit pricy for games that have no major updates or changes, fans were just excited to be able to revisit the games they love. With that said, the experience hasn’t been smooth. In addition to server and hit registration issues, players are also running into compromised lobbies.
Players are able to easily host modded lobbies in Black Ops 1, allowing players to exploit the game. If you manage to get into one of these lobbies, you can just blow yourself up with a grenade as soon as you spawn, leave the game, and you will hit max rank. As a result of this, players are just entering lobbies and blowing themselves up immediately and then leaving. If the entire enemy team quits, you will win by default due to forfeit. As a result, some fans are frustrated as they can’t really play or enjoy the game.
Black Ops 1 port is filled with people blowing themselves up to hit max level instantly on a 16 year old COD pic.twitter.com/toYRP8wXfq
— ModernWarzone (@ModernWarzone) July 13, 2026
“So [Black Ops 1] is now infected with the XP thing where you max level by nading yourself then leaving,” said one player. “It’s leading to unplayable lobbies.” Another player echoed these sentiments: “[Black Ops 1 Ground War] is literally ruined with this XP glitch. Cannot play a lobby without 6 people leaving, rejoining, and killing themselves over and over again. What a joke.”
Others are using this as an opportunity to point out the hypocrisy among players, as fans have begged for new versions of older COD games only to have players ruin it.
“I don’t know what’s people obsession with getting into EXP lobbies or paying money for an UNLOCKALL like we all moaned about how s**t the current state of COD was and then as soon as we get something good, you find the quickest way to exploit the ports… hasn’t even been a week.”
There are still some lobbies you can get into, but you will still see the odd player blowing themselves up in the killfeed. Ultimately, it’s far from an ideal experience. Call of Duty fans have been begging Activision to re-release older entries of the franchise for over a decade and now that it has happened, they are trying to race to become the highest level in the game, even if it calls for exploits.
It’s a disappointing outcome, and given such little effort was put into these ports, it’s hard to imagine there will be any moderation or notable updates to fix these kinds of issues. One can only hope that once a large portion of the player base hits max rank, this issue will go away. However, it’s also hard to imagine players sticking around for long if they have nothing to progress towards or unlock.
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN’s news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
